Indoor Staircase Repair
Hi All,
Looking for references for people who focus on doing staircase repair in a brownstone. Thanks!
sanfordnson
in General Discussion 4 years and 6 months ago
34
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34 replies
Guest User | 4 years and 6 months ago
I called Marty Anderson a while back and they said they don’t work in Brooklyn.
braden.andrews | 4 years and 6 months ago
We are using Marty Anderson and Associates for rebuilding the stairs in a brownstone in Hoboken. Their web site is https://martyandersonandassociates.com.
andriywww1990 | 4 years and 6 months ago
I am glad you guys are sharing this with me on here.. I want my customers to know i am as cool you two and that i sit in on friday nights watching PBS.
JohnHancock | 4 years and 6 months ago
It’s also on the webs, where I linked you last time. Pretty easy to search on the newshour page
andriywww1990 | 4 years and 6 months ago
thank you bob. i missed it.
RobertGMarvin
in General Discussion 4 years and 6 months ago
It was on both, a segment of the PBS News Hour. 21 broadcasts it at 6:00; 13 at 7:00
andriywww1990 | 4 years and 6 months ago
@JH was that on thirteen? or 21? 21 was not a PBS station back in the day. i never got to see the show you are talking about. first it was washington week on 13 followed by a really good program about miles davis. i think i fared better with the miles davis program.
stevecym | 4 years and 6 months ago
@jh. Will watch. Thank you, i got a call from someone you gave my name to.
JohnHancock | 4 years and 6 months ago
Steve, doors, part 2 on PBS newshour tonight, still not tailored to your particular situation but hey, they take on the topic for everyone to explain there’s a problem
sanfordnson | 4 years and 6 months ago
Thanks @jane
Guest User | 4 years and 6 months ago
https://www.brownstoner.com/forum/#!/general-discussion:seeking-recommendations-for_2
All American had a few reviews that made me steer clear but they could be great.
sanfordnson | 4 years and 6 months ago
Thank you @joearchitect! @urbandad do you remember who you recommended? I searched for the post @janedrew mentioned you had but haven’t been able to find it. I’d like to have a couple of estimates to compare.
joearchitect | 4 years and 6 months ago
I used All American Stairs and Railings (based in queens) for my own house. We had them do one flight, and then another flight a few years later. Both times they did really great work. They replaced the treads and risers while keeping the original balusters and handrail. They got everything tight and solid. The nose of the treads, the little cove and the lattice trim is exactly like the original. In order to make the stair treads look more like the original I had them use rift-sawn white oak. The treads were stained with a mix of red oak and ebony to get a color that closely matched the existing mahogany handrail.
andriywww1990 | 4 years and 6 months ago
@jane: people always think it is easy and some people go into things because they think it will be easy. but to do it right is hard. in anything.
i think you were talking about the plumbing though. but i have some questions about the journalism and i have been digging deeper into this and am beginning to learn that the journalists don’t want to admit some truths about the relationship between labor, available jobs, and pay and benefits. in the case of the PBS report, i think they are using one or two examples to paint a picture of something that does not exist or is elusive for many.
Journalism used to be the path the working class took into a professional position. the journalists of yesteryear could relate to the masses and spoke for the masses. now we have journalists coming out of harvard and they have not a clue to the challenges the working class faces. they listen to the single minded popularity driven “experts” in washington or purpose driven staff at ngo’s (or lobbyists or non profits; all driven by money) to gather their thoughts on social policy and they interview a couple of business owners. the journalists have become closed minded elitists (don’t get me wrong, i don’t mind elitists – just don’t try to look like something else).
i heard something on NPR from (i think) a NYT reporter that told me how out of touch these people are. i want to find a way to share it. it sort of fits with some of the stuff i am talking about here.
I have a second rate university education. i read the transcript of that PBS report and all i came away with were dozens of questions. I would expect more from PBS and NPR. if you cannot do something right, because of space or budgetary constraints, why bother doing it at all?
Guest User | 4 years and 6 months ago
Isn’t that true in any field? Out of the box thinkers or people that understand the rationale and be flexible are not common. My contractor and I are try to come up with different ideas to figure out the best solution. But I know that isn’t everyone. Some trades just want to do things the same way. If you suggest an alternate way, their heads start to explode. For example, the plumber told us he couldn’t raise a pipe as it wouldn’t have enough pitch. So we measured it and it had enough. That’s a very basic example but just goes to show that some of them don’t want to actually think or rationalize the decision.
stevecym | 4 years and 6 months ago
Urbandad, that all may be so but the point is there is something missing to the story. Go read the comments to the story and others raised the same questions i did.
hkapstein | 4 years and 6 months ago
Plumbing is not actually that easy to be good at. You have to solve a lot of problems. I spent a few hours recently working on the geometry of a DWV system to make it fit in the joist spaces I had while using the correct fittings and pitches. The plumber couldn’t figure it out, I had to think about it and do some research, and the solution wasn’t trivial. Try asking your next plumbing tech, or even LMP why a wet vent should connect below 45 degrees, and a dry vent above 45 degrees, or what the difference between 95/5 and silver solder is, or what size vent is required for a fixture. Or ask them what the point is of wiping flux of the joints, and whether they always do that. I’ll bet 1 in 5 best could answer correctly, probably less. It’s not a job anybody can do well unfortunately, and doing it in a way that creates callbacks, leaks, and endless hours on a job is not going to bring in six figures.
andriywww1990 | 4 years and 6 months ago
back to the stairs.
this is what i think is going on with those stairs. the treads are pulling away because the floor has sagged, bringing the staircase down with it. the treads pull away with the outside knee wall or stringer.
this is only a guess, but my thought is to begin this, one has to raise the floors. this is a guess and it is a job for a serious pro (not a finish carpenter like me). once the floors are lifted, i have seen them take anchors and put them in the wall under the staircase and then put eyelets into the outside stringer and run cables to the stringer with turn buckles in them. they then tighten it all up, drawing the stringer and treads back to the wall.
if you think you need what i said above, you need a serious stair company. if you think you need a few cracked or worn treads changed and some ballusters made and installed and a loose balustrade tightened, a finish carpenter should be able to do that (i used to build balustrades; once you have done one, you are an expert; my cousin hired the painter to install hers on LI).
so i cont acted a customer who had her stairs pulled back to the wall. i am sorry, i did not clarify the order of operations, if they had lifted the floors first. i can write her back and will. or maybe she will take a look at this post? she used to be on here all the time.
this is the person she used to do her stair work: Bill at Fine Circular Stairs. BUT she says he sold the company and cannot vouch for the current owners.
andriywww1990 | 4 years and 6 months ago
@John Hancock I did read the transcript to that report. and all weekend i thought about all the questions it put in my head. what is the owner of the plumbing company not telling us? you have to work 12 hour days and half a saturday for that 100k? or when you are making 18 an hour they make you work 12 hour days and you can’t date or see friends (all important for young people. i could not put all the questions that appeared in my head into words so i took a look at the comments that people wrote in response to the show:
one was “i was working for an electrician who made (he meant “charged”) $75.00 an hour and by the time he got done with with the insurance and …., he came out with $30 an hour”. (this is what i was talking about in a separate post i made on here)
and the other more telling reply was this “i know a father and son who run a two man plumbing operation in seattle and they do not make 200k a year. (the speaker) is full of Donkey Dust”
these kinds of myths and rumors about the jobs where people can make 100k a year have been around forever. when i was a kid we heard about them and there was always some obstacle or something not right about what was being said that made those jobs elusive.
if PBS or NPR wanted to really roll up their sleeves and dig into this, they would do some real journalism and talk to people who work for the plumber from seattle and the electrician from ithaca and send someone in to interview and listen to all the promises they make or how you have to work long days. then talk to the youth in the area and listen to them. or talk to youth here in nyc and see if they want to move to seattle or ithaca.
something is missing here.